The diocese has, since 2007, been struggling with a crisis regarding the leadership of its bishop, including allegations of abuse against both the bishop and the diocesan chancellor, Archimandrite Isidore (Brittain). His Grace, the Right Reverend Nikolai (Soraich), the diocesan bishop, was placed on a leave of absence beginning March 4, 2008, which was rescinded shortly thereafter and then reinstated on April 17, 2008. The leave became voluntarily permanent in May 2008, followed by his official retirement.

History

The territory of what is now the Diocese of Alaska was the beginning of the presence of Orthodox Christianity in the Western Hemisphere when Russian monks arrived as missionaries to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the indigenous peoples in the 1790s. This mission expanded into the formation of a series of dioceses and vicarsees that became the Archdiocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America during the first decade of the twentieth century with the territory of Alaska served by an assistant/vicar bishop.

With the establishment of the diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, the position of an auxiliary/vicar bishop was established for Alaska, first held by Bishop Innocent (Pustynsky). When the Church of Russia granted autocephaly to the Metropolia, the successor organization to the Archdiocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, the territory of Alaska was organized as a diocese of of the new Orthodox Church in America, with a diocesan bishop.